KSU women second at Greeno Invite

LINCOLN, Nebraska — K-State junior Laura Galvan finished second at the Woody Greeno Invitational in Lincoln, Nebraska, with a time of 21:24.00. The women finished second, while the men finished sixth.

Galvan who won the Invitational last year, has now started back-to-back seasons with top-3 finishes in each of her first two races. Her effort in Lincoln is her seventh career top-10 finish and fourth top-5 finish in a race.

Head Coach Michael Smith was not surprised with how well Galvan ran today.

“Laura ran another good race, she was ahead in the 4K then it started getting a little hilly and she got passed,” Smith said. “She just stayed in second and by the time she needed to make a run it was too late.

Not competing was senior Martina Tresch, as Smith held her out due to course conditions.

For it being only her second race as a Wildcat and first career 6K, Wedekind was pleased with her performance.

“I was feeling pretty good when I hit the 3K mark and then I got tired once I got passed the 4K mark,” Wedekind said. “Luckily, once I got to the 5K it just all went downhill.”

Smith praised the freshman’s performance as well and only expects her to get better as the season progresses.

“Morgan did very well with this being her first ever 6K,” Smith said. “She will just keep getting better and better as the season goes along.”

Despite the third place finish, Smith saw plenty of areas that the Wildcat women can improve upon.

“Some of the girls ran very well, but some also ran very tentative and we paid for being so tentative throughout the race,” Smith said. “Once we learn to get a little more aggressive then we will get better.”

Donnelly echoed her coach’s sentiments.

“As a whole we could have done better today, we were not satisfied with our performance,” Donnelly said. “We are just looking to get better and better from meet to meet.”

On the men’s side, freshman Lukas Koch led the way with a 26th place finish in a time of 26:47.20. Rounding out the men’s squad was Ryan Hershner, Jeff Bachman and Brett Bachman finishing 30th, 37th and 47th respectively.

Smith was impressed with how the freshman Koch ran today.

“Lukas ran a good race today, it was his first 8K so I think he did pretty well,” Smith said.

Nebraska won the men’s meet, with Wichita State finishing second. Wichita State won the women’s race and Nebraska-Kearney finished second.

K-State takes another week break before traveling to Lawrence Kan., for the Rim Rock Invitational on Oct. 5. The Wildcats will look to replicate last year’s success where both the men and the women finished in the Top-10.